


Triskelion

by AurayaPhoenix



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Merlin (TV)
Genre: BBC Merlin AU, Crystal of Neahtid, Gen, Harry Potter AU, Hogwarts, Merlin loves magic, One Shot, so does Harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 03:50:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16400807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AurayaPhoenix/pseuds/AurayaPhoenix
Summary: Harry is wandering Hogwarts alone, gets a little lost, and has a surprise meeting with a famous face. One-shot.





	Triskelion

Harry was frustrated. He'd spent every spare minute of the last week trying to get back into the Room of Requirement, but to no avail. The door wouldn't even appear, never mind let him in. He just knew this was somehow Malfoy's fault. 

In his frustration, he'd decided to go for a wander through the castle to blow off some steam. Just as he was thinking about heading back to Gryffindor Tower, he glanced up and realised that he had no idea what part of the castle he was in. Hogwarts was a big place, and he was under no illusions that he knew all of its secrets, but he honestly thought that he at least understood his way around. 

Curious, Harry decided to explore further. The corridor he was in looked the same as any other, on the surface. Stone walls, check; suits of armour, check; tapestries, check; flickering torches, check. But there was something... off... about it. 

Harry didn't really feel a sense of danger, but drew his wand anyway as a precaution. The fake Moody may have been a Death Eater, but CONSTANT VIGILANCE really wasn't a bad practice. His instincts told him that no one had been down this way in a very long time, and yet it was spotless. House elves even cleaned the abandoned areas of the castle, he supposed. 

Perhaps he felt comfortable here due to the colour scheme. He was beginning to realise that the colour red was very prevalent in the wall hangings. Lots of lion imagery too. 'Apart from that one...' he thought to himself, noticing a hanging about ten feet ahead of him, on the left. 

The hanging was a deep, forest green and woven with an intricate pattern in golden thread. All the decorations in the castle were old, but this appeared to be absolutely ancient. The elaborate green and gold embroidery was a background to a strange symbol. It was triangular, but not a perfect triangle. More like three interlocking curls that formed a vaguely triangular shape. 

Triskelion. 

The word appeared in his head out of nowhere. He knew he'd never heard it before, and yet he was just as certain that it was what the symbol was called. 

How could he know that, though? 

Feeling exceedingly confused, Harry raised his wand and drew it across the tapestry. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but something seemed strange. 

Harry lifted the edge of the tapestry and raised his eyebrows in surprise. There was a door. He thought he knew of most of the secret passages in the castle, but this one definitely hadn't been on the map. 

Feeling suddenly, inexplicably nervous, Harry reached out and grasped the doorknob. It turned with ease and not even a squeak of noise. He pushed the door open and ducked under the tapestry to step through. 

Harry found himself in a room, rather than the corridor he'd expected. It was a rather large room, filled with endless shelves of, well... stuff. Just from a cursory glance around, Harry could see a carved wooden dragon; a golden chalice; some neatly folded chainmail; dozens of unfamiliar books; some jewellery that looked medieval; a gilded golden mirror; heaps of unfamiliar coins; and all sorts of other miscellania. What really caught his eye, though, was a Crystal sitting on a small pedestal in the very centre of the room. 

It was just a simple Crystal; about the size of his fist, rough cut, and mostly transparent. None of which explained why he felt so irresistibly drawn to it; or why he felt the need to capitalise the word Crystal, even in his head. 

Without even noticing, Harry had lowered his guard. He slowly made his way towards the pedestal until his chest was brushing against the edge. He leaned closer to the stone. There was something in the centre of it; a cloudy imperfection that spoiled the clarity. He wanted to reach in and clean it out. Closer still. His breath was fogging the surface of it now. He tried to breathe less deeply. He was as close as he could get, now. His nose just beginning to brush the surface of the Crystal. Was the cloudy portion changing? It seemed to be shifting colour and shape. 

"I'd move away from that if I were you."

Harry let out a high-pitched yelp that he'd later deny and leapt away from the Crystal, narrowly missing a shelf full of ornamental daggers. "Bloody hell, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" he exclaimed as he looked up at the source of the voice. 

The source turned out to be a man. A young man with messy black hair, not unlike his own. That was where the similarity stopped, though. Where Harry was small and skinny, the man was fairly tall and slim, but with clearly defined muscles in his bare forearms. The man also had piercing blue eyes, in contrast to Harry's bright green, and abnormally large ears. 

"Sorry about that," the man apologised, "but if you'd kept staring into that Crystal much longer, you'd have seen a few things you might regret."

"Er... alright. What is it?"

"The Crystal of Neahtid," the man replied, glancing back across at it. "Nasty little artefact, but quite useful when used responsibly. Not something a student should be getting mixed up with. Not even the boy-who-lived." The man smirked at him. 

Harry stiffened. "I hate that name," he muttered. 

"Yes, I quite imagine you do," the man replied. "It's not pleasant having a destiny you don't understand and can't control, even when you are given all the information. Believe me, I should know." The man smiled, tightly and looked back to Harry. 

Harry, however, was growing more confused and suspicious by the minute. "Who are you?"

"Ah. Well, that's not such a simple answer. I've had a few names and titles over the years. Emrys, Myrrdin, Tim. Most recently I've been going by Nicholas; Nicholas Flamel. (Harry's eyebrows shot up, and his jaw dropped). But my original name, the one my mother gave me, was Merlin."

"Merlin."

"Nice to meet you!"

"You're Merlin."

"Yep, that's me."

"Bloody hell. And you're Nicholas Flamel?!"

"Hmm... Yeah. One of my many aliases. Didn't intend for that one to last so long to be honest, but what can you do. Someone found out about the Philosopher's Stone I was tinkering with, and I became a bit famous. Was sort of glad when Albus found a good excuse to get rid of that to be quite honest. Meant I could slide back into anonymity for a bit."

"Right... Yeah, I can understand that."

"I thought you might," Merlin (Merlin!!!) smiled again. "Well, might as well get onto it. The reason I called you here."

"Called me? Sorry, I didn't get a message or anything. I was just wandering and found this room."

"Yes, after the Room of Requirement failed to open, and your mind drifted on your walk and this portion of the castle opened up to you. It's not somewhere you can get to without an invitation from me."

"Oh. Is that why it's not on the map?"

"Map? You have a map of the castle?" Merlin looked puzzled. "How, when it changes so much?"

"Er... it's something my dad and his friends made. Updates and changes with the school."

Merlin grinned, and his whole face lit up. He suddenly looked about 10 years younger. "That's incredible. Over a thousand years and magic still has the power to surprise me." 

Harry grinned back, "I think I'd feel the same way. I love magic."

"It's pretty fantastic, isn't it. Anyway, that's why I called you here. Magic."

"Oh? What about it? I mean, I already go to all my classes and I do okay in them. Not as good as Hermione, but she's a genius. And I do better than Ron."

"No, Harry. I'm not here about your grades. I'm here about Magic." He paused. He grinned again. "Want to learn some?"


End file.
